I have always had an obsession with food...

I have always had an obsession with food.  From my youth, cheese.  Grilled cheese sandwiches. And Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup.  When all else failed my mother knew what I would eat. But I remember voluntarily and happily eating whatever was on my plate when I was a wee tot. I know that we ate kohlrabi  (read about Kohlrabi at this link --hmm, sounds good!) a root vegetable, 

and hasenpefer  (click here to read about Hasenpfeffer) -yes, that is rabbit stew. My uncle raised rabbits for that purpose, and it is a very tasty meal.  But I digress.... my point is that as a small tot I was fed a wide variety of vegetables and fruits, and I always found meal time satisfying and often delightful.  Our little family, gathered at the table, in the large, warm kitchen every evening.

In my teenage years I did a lot of over-eating. I had the metabolism to get away with it. I can remember, once I was finished with high school, that I ate much less during the week, but Saturdays were "pig out" days...I was home, no place to go, and free to eat anything I wanted.  It was insanely easy because my mother always had 6 months worth of food in the house. Doritos, spaghetti-o's, macaroni & cheese, brownie batter, cookie dough, hamburger helper.... sometimes all of that in one day.... hard to believe that I could eat that much and still weigh 130lbs.

Anyway, I LOVE FOOD.  But in my thirties I started to not feel well,...a lot of nausea to go along with fatigue that I had suffered from for a few years. Without medical insurance I began to do some research... not so much at the library, as at a local health food store. I began to read Natural Health magazine, and subscribed after finding that, at the time, it held many very good articles. My main impetus was an unpleasant condition, most simply described as chronic diarrhea.  I sought relief through dietary adjustments. Nothing seemed to help.  Remember that I had no health insurance, and I was also reluctant to go to a doctor for answers because I did not want to have the accompanying (unpleasant) tests and how would I pay for all that! And then, in a health store in a shopping mall I found a temporary answer in a product for babies, a product called Colic. Like a bolt of lightning I made the connection! Colic is digestive distress, so a product that would help with that, and gentle enough for a baby, so why not try it! And what was the main ingredient? Acidophilus. Dumbstruck, I realized that I had known the answer all along. I needed acidophilus. Probiotics. 

Well, that was a piece of the puzzle, and acidophilus meant that I could enjoy food again, without worry. But I did not leave things at that, I continued to read health oriented magazines, and chat with the lady at the health food store, because she was very knowledgeable.  Eventually I stopped buying bread, instead only eating it in restaurants or at other people's houses.  Then I cut back on consumption of meat, not eliminating it entirely, but only consuming what meat was in meals that I bought (Stouffer's, and other frozen meals) or on pizza. That reduction of meat eating lasted about 2 years, until I decided that I needed the protein.  But, about that time, I noticed something else... I was not eating foods I had loved my entire life, like pasta, specifically spaghetti.  I was still eating a lot of processed foods, like frozen dinners, but I stopped purchasing pasta obsessively, that was a big sign of something, but I shrugged it off.

I will admit that I had read articles about Crohn's Disease (how truly awful!), and diverticulitis, celiac disease, and myriad other illnesses of the digestive system.  All of that simply horrified me! Imagine not being able to eat the very foods you love the most!! No bread, no pasta,.... Olive Garden was my favorite place to eat! Bread sticks and endless pasta bowls.... And every time I ate at Olive Garden I went straight home and slept for hours.  My body was struggling and I was not paying enough of the right kind of attention to it.  And then there was the itching.  No hives, no breakouts of any kind; the only evidence was the scratched skin.  Horrible, burning itchy skin,..but only in the winter.... 
At one point I thought sugar was the culprit.  Always a label reader, I began going through everything I ate, and reading the ingredients for the sugar content.  I cut back on sugar consumption, and the itching went away.  That worked for 2 winters, and then stopped.  Clearly there was something else, but I let life in general stop my search for answers.  I was told, by doctors and others, that everyone had the same problems I had.  Everyone has fatigue.... but everyone does not spend upward of 8 hours sleeping on a Saturday, when they have slept soundly all of Friday night.....  I was spending my weekends sleeping, quite literally.

I tried a rotation diet, in which I ate no bread or pasta, cookies, pizza, etc. for 4 days in a row, and then ate all I wanted of those things for a day.  This was in the winter, when the itching was at it's most unbearable, and (low and behold) the itching stopped.  But, still, I thought that was all I needed to do... in winter, when itching started, just rotate "wheat" out of my diet: 4 days off and 1 day on.

It was only when I realized that I had not eaten pizza in months, 11 months to be exact, that I began to consider that I would need to seek medical advice.  I had been doing it all by myself for more than 15 years!

As it happened, about that same time a number of people I knew were in treatment for various types of cancer.  I did not think I had cancer, but it made me think: what can I do? to assuage my own fears..... and I thought about my journey from chronic diarrhea, to seemingly unexplained itching, to myriad symptoms that mystified doctors. And I made a very important decision... a decision that may have saved my life, but certainly saved me from becoming gravely ill.  I decided to get a colonoscopy.  Colon cancer is 100% preventable, if you get a colonoscopy. If it is caught early enough it is curable.  (read about it by clicking on this link)  It was the only thing I could do, for myself.  (Yes, I helped myself, because I could not help my friends. I won't defend that here.)

The results, as you may surmise, did not surprise me, but they did dismay me greatly.  I have Celiac Disease. It can be deadly, but death would come only after suffering, withering, weight loss, hospitalization,.... not a pleasant prospect.

The next place I went was to a local grocery store. I wanted to see what was available in gluten free foods, and what was this going to cost.  Woodman's... fantastic. The day I went they were preparing to nearly quadruple the size of their "health food" selection.  Thankfully that meant they were, not only aware, but they were increasing their actual gluten free selection greatly.  I immediately began to overeat many of the foods I was missing, like pasta!  But a pound of gluten free noodles costs more than twice as much as that nasty wheat pasta everyone else eats.  Portion control is everything.  For health, weight, and peace of mind. In a world of chronic overeaters, please at least take this away from the time you have spent reading my story!! PORTION CONTROL IS EVERYTHING!  Have will power, and be proud of yourself for not overeating, please.

Once again I love to eat! and I love food, and this affair ain't over.... the journey continues, as you have seen in recent posts, I am still on a food journey.... I am working on a "keto cycling diet", and I will certainly write more about that...

Be well my friends!

Listen to your body! It will tell you if something is not right.....

here are a few things I can have on my keto diet:

The Blizzard of '67

51 years ago. I remember. Who could forget! It was a blizzard of major proportions and it shut down an entire region.  

link to WGN story /2017/01/25/50-years-ago-tomorrow-snow-brought-chicago-to-a-standstill/

I was in school. First grade at Saint Zachary's in Des Plaines, Illinois. At some point they realized that they needed to send the children home. It must have been a massive undertaking -trying to reach all of the parents of hundreds of children. They could not reach my parents by phone,...no one was there to answer the phone.

A man drove up to the school looking for his daughter, who happened to have gone home with next door neighbor children in their parents car. Quick thinking nuns, looking at 5 or 6 little girls whose parents had not been contacted, recruited this man to take the group of little girls to their homes. 

My house was closest, so I was the first.  The man drove his station wagon to my house, by my direction. We lived in a rural area, off of Mount Prospect Road, near Howard Avenue. It was a farm of sorts, my father was a florist (which at that time meant that he grew flowers).  So there was a large yard in front of the greenhouses, and our home, and a large portion of it was a wide, gravel driveway, which my brothers had kept plowed clear of snow.

The station wagon crawled slowly into the yard. More than likely the man honked the car horn, hoping someone would appear. I do not remember exactly how it played out,... it was dark inside, so it was apparent that no one was home,.... perhaps the man went into the garage and hollered, perhaps not.... but that was the way in.  I am sure that the man wondered about our living space, but he did believe that it was where I needed to be.  So, I had to convince him that the home to the north of us was my brother's house.  I imagine that he was uncertain that a 6 year old child could have a brother old enough to have his own home.  But he did not have to go back out to the road to get there, the driveways were plowed, and all he needed to do was drive along in front of the building to get to the house I was indicating.

By the time we made that short drive some one had noticed a strange car in the yard.  My sister-in-law came out to the meet the car. She spoke with the man as I climbed out of the station wagon.

I remember little else of that exact day.  I went into my brother's home, which was warm and cozy, and we probably kept an eye to the window as we waited for my parents to get home.  I know that my parents were upset that the nuns put me in a car with a stranger, and a man, and allowed that man to drive away with little girls in the car.  I believe that I did not understand why that would upset them, because I obeyed the nuns, and I had, after all, arrived in a safe place, in short order, unscathed.  Nonetheless I am certain that phone calls were made to appropriate parties to register a complaint.

My parents, by the way, had been at the grocery store, stocking up on foodstuffs, who knew how long we might be snowbound! the snow was not stopping!

As I understand it a front stalled over the Gulf coast, and it sent or held wind and moisture over the continent toward the Great Lakes.  It stalled for something like 27 hours, thus we had a record snowfall of 23 inches in one 29 hour period. A record that still stands today.

link to Wikipedia article: wiki/1967_Chicago_blizzard

As I mentioned before, my brothers, John and Skip, kept the yard and driveways plowed. They had a front end loader scoop attached to a farm tractor, so the had the ability to deposit the snow wherever they wanted it. They even took some of that snow and made a private sledding hill just for me.  Someone had a Flexible Flyer red saucer sled for me, and I had some fun with that.  The hill of snow was nearly as high as the one-story roof of our house, and they carved a staircase into one side of the hill, for easy access. One of my nieces, 4 or 5 years older than I, was my companion. She lived next door. I am sure that I had the best of the sledding, being smaller and also less experienced.

This is one my best, most cherished memories of my childhood.  Many thanks to my much older brothers for thinking of me and having fun making it fun for a little girl.

Other memories of the Blizzard of '67:

A delivery truck was abandoned near the end of our driveway.

this style of delivery truck

My dad wondered if the driver had walked away or what. And when would someone come and remove that truck from the roadside.

There where three families living on our property, ours, my brothers, and the family of man who worked for my dad.  That other family's son, George had a Pontiac car, and he volunteered to pick my nieces up from school and drive them home - perhaps a 2 mile trip from the high school.  The way I remember their story was that, approaching the railroad tracks the road was unplowed, and supposedly George hit the gas and launched that car off the top of a snowdrift and across the railroad tracks, with the girls in the car, to get them home. A boastful young fellow exaggerating I am sure, but my oldest niece did give him a mild scolding for being a stunt driver with young ladies in the vehicle. 

That is what I remember. 

I survived the Blizzard of '67.

https://www.weather.gov/lot/67blizzard

do not question, just listen and take their hand

Many years ago, when I was young, but somehow also old...a friend I loved attempted suicide.  I was in the house with her. I knew what she was doing, when she remained in that locked bathroom for too long.

I pounded on the door. "Open the door!" I shouted. 
"No!" was the reply.

I waited a beat, then, "I'm calling Henry!" -her psychologist friend.
"You won't." she shouted back.

Walking as loud as I could, I went out of the room and down the hallway.  I paused there for a brief moment. 

I was at the bottom of the stairs to the second floor.  At the top of the stairs, through the doorway on the left, was a telephone. 

I lifted one foot, tapping hard on the bottom step, I tapped that foot hard on the step..... BANG..BANG..BANG.  Mimicking the sound of going up the stairs.

The bathroom door flew open. I ran back down the hallway to her. She was grabbing the phone off the wall.  "Stop!" I shouted.

She let go of the phone. "What DID you DO!" I demanded, as she began to pace rapidly all around the first floor of her parents house. She began to speak rapidly, "it'snot supposedtohappenthisfast." words strung together in panic.  Pacing faster, faster,...speaking more words so fast they are strung together, incomprehensible. 

I run to the bathroom, grab the single item in the trash bin: a prescription bottle, empty.

"We're going for pie." I tell her, and she moves rapidly to the front door.
"Put on your coat." I command.  She opens the closet and gets her coat, I reach past her for my coat.
"Put on your mittens and hat." she does as I say.

Moving much slower, as she tries to comprehend what we are doing, she goes outside in the winter chill, and heads for my car.  I run past her and open the car door, to make sure she gets in.
I hurry around to the driver side and climb in.  She is silent now. Too quiet. 
I am thinking, where are her parents tonight?... yes, there, I know where they are, I will call them from the emergency room.

We had had dinner with her parents.  They then left for different destinations in town, meetings, obligations.  She and I watched television, and she regaled me with stories of past suicide attempts, some foolish and a few thought out carefully. As she talked she looked up information in a Physician's Drug Reference book, and other medical books. I listened to her talk, and asked questions, and made comments.... I thought she was just talking,...I thought that she would not try with someone in the house.... but I underestimated her need to live. 
----------------
It is hard to understand the desperation and desolation. With empathy (too much empathy) and age, not that many years later, I arrived at a place where I can, in a minor sense, understand the desperation and desolation.  They are utter and they are overwhelming,... and people don't know how to make others understand.... it's an ugly place. a lonely place.

Some find their peace in it.  The rest of us do not understand it.
----------------
My friend? I talked to her on the drive to the hospital. I asked her questions. She did not reply to my pleas.  I cannot know what was in her mind, as I drove -ever fearful that she would try to get out of the car.... she cannot remember that night, she never will.

At the ER I tell the person at the desk precisely: "My friend took these." I put the empty prescription bottle on the counter. "She is trying to commit suicide." I whisper. 
The person stands and comes around the end of the counter, takes my friend by the arm and gently propels her. 

I go to the pay phone and take up the receiver and put coins in the slot.
After what seems like a very long time her father arrives. 
They let us see her, her father takes me with him, grabbing my coat sleeve.
She is sitting on a bed. There is a tube in her nose. Charcoal. They are trying to get the drugs out of her. (When you take activated charcoal, drugs and toxins can bind to it. This helps rid the body of unwanted substances.)  She does not speak, nor acknowledge us at all.  Her father takes her by the hand, she stares blankly.  The nurse sends us out again.

Her father goes off to fill out paperwork. I stay, unable to just go home. It is very late.  Her father returns, see me still there.... we go to a 24 hour restaurant across from the hospital, and have coffee.  He tells me things about relatives...things that are none of my business,... some grandparent may have had mental illness.  It is not relevant to this situation, but I let him talk, because it is what he needs to do. 
---------------
She was admitted to the hospital, later to the psychiatric ward, there to remain for a period of 3 weeks.  School will wait until the following year.  We will gather near this young woman, a number of us, and help her regain her life and return to school.

------------------------------------------------------------
the only epilogue that can offer is that my dear friend lives to this very day.... many years later, a wife, a mother, a devout Christian.  more I will not say.  I did not have permission to tell this story, thus the lack of names.

My reason?
A new friend. A person about whom I care very much.... a person I hope will be a lifelong friend.... has experienced a terrible loss.  someone she loved is gone.
my friend: talk all you want. cry as needed. I will listen. I will offer my shoulder.
I hurt alongside you, not the same as you, but with empathy.
.
.

diet: the sum of food consumed by a person

This is and is not about weight loss.

It is definitely about overall health first and weight management second.

I cannot consume gluten. I should avoid any and all contact with gluten in any form. That is a fact. I have celiac disease. "Celiac disease is a serious autoimmune disorder that can occur in genetically predisposed people where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestine..." and leaves one... "...at risk for long-term health complications." This is no laughing matter. If I want to function, at all, I must adhere to a gluten free diet.

THIS IS ABOUT A LIFESTYLE.  Diet is essentially a lifestyle.  Some of us must follow some rules which make up a lifestyle, or way of living -so that we can go on living --and not feel unwell all the time. This is necessary if we want to function, think clearly, and not feel fatigued all the time. To not feel bloated and uncomfortable every single day we must teach ourselves to follow a protocol that is often individualized to some extent.

My mother's favorite line was "everyone is different".  That is so true. Everyone with dietary restrictions is different, what one can tolerate another cannot. 

In the time since my diagnosis other issues have surfaced. My theory is that my body was working so hard to survive, as it attacked it's own cells, that it somehow masked other food sensitivities. In other words, about two years after my diagnosis I discovered that I have a sensitivity to citrus. I ate some tangerines, in fact I enjoyed those tangerines. And then wondered why I had such severe itching... no hives in that first exposure, no symptom other than the itching. Only a few short weeks later, when I drank some 100% orange juice, did I experience a more pronounced reaction: hives,.. big, raspberry hives all over the back of my lower legs. I had to sit down and think about what I had eaten that was not a regular part of my diet. Unfortunately 100% orange juice was a regular "pick me up" for me, giving me a charge of vitamin C and literally a "caffiene"-like charge good for a couple of hours of energy. And then I remembered the tangerines and the hive-less itching. An allergist confirmed that I would never again enjoy grapefruit, orange juice, tangerines, limes, lemons.... 
(other sensitivities include allergies to strawberries, mushrooms, shellfish, bleu cheese.... and I do not eat fish of any kind -no seafood, no freshwater fish)

____________________________

Now, years after the diagnosis of celiac disease, and a few other food "issues" later, I have arrived at a new threshold.... I am obese. That is to say that I meet the medical definition of 'obese'. It doesn't take much! I mean I thought that I was okay at 175 to 180 pounds, at 5 foot 8 inches tall.... but that is within the definition or diagnosis of "obesity".  According to medical calculations 175 is 20 pounds more than my 'ideal' weight. I know, I know... those old calculations are "off", and I should not worry about them..... BUT here is the thing: I am unwell. I get winded easily. I lack stamina. Like many Americans, my life is FAR TOO sedentary. I don't get any exercise. And I feel it all! 

And, I am at a crossroads. I am at a point in life where I must decide to change my diet, to live a healthier lifestyle - OR die.  Okay, death is not imminent, but it ain't so far away any more either.
I am not afraid of death,... like my momma always said: "when The Lord is ready, He will take you home, and there is nothing you can do about it."  That said, I would like to be able to stand, and walk, and (here's a biggie) get myself to the toilet and take care of bodily functions without the assistance of another human being. That is the basic, and essential issue --bodily functions.

So, if you know me on Facebook, or on Twitter, you may have noticed that I have begun to share certain recipes,.. .and I have mentioned "keto" diet or "keto" recipes. 

That is a lot of BACON and butter,...and high-fat, low-carb foods..... which I will thoroughly enjoy.... the more recipes I see the better this sounds to me! Here's to no longer feeling hungry all the time,....

This is my new journey,..made easier because I was already following dietary restrictions anyway.... and who needs all that sugar! Starting with bone broth and butter in my coffee and going new places, and hopefully losing the excess weight.... 155? I don't care about that, if I can just get back to 170, I will be pretty darn happy, and have way more stamina and energy.

Stay tuned folks, because succeed or fail, I will be sharing the results, periodically......

___________________________________________________________

References and information:

link to A Beginner's Guide to the Ketogenic diet.

Link to: Wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeliac_disease

Link to Celiac.com and the FORUMs where you can ask questions and learn from others with Celiac Disease

The Celiac Disease Foundation link


(speaking of updates,....after writing this, and clearly prior to publishing it --I have learned about "Carb cycling" which means that I don't have to give up all carbs permanently,.... like any diet, I can take a break for a day, eat whatever I want -that is gluten free, and then go back to NO carbs....)

(As an "aside" I have not had any alcohol in over 6 weeks now.... partially due to the hours I am working, partially due to just not wanting it, and partially because it would mean consuming sugar- both in the alcohol and because I mix it with soda pop.)



(1/27/2018) follow up note: please note that I did not make a rapid lifestyle change for this keto diet. I have eased into this gradually.  I would caution anyone to make this change slowly, so as not to shock your system and become ill.  I have not consulted a doctor about this, because doctors don't know everything and tend to stick to what I call 'the party line', meaning that a doctor will more than likely tell you that increasing your fat intake and eating more bacon are "bad" for you.  Please, if you are considering this, do READ very carefully about the the keto diet, as the fats that are included are good fats.

baby. it's COLD outside (memories of previous cold winters)

the 42nd parallel..... latitude in the northern hemisphere... The United States of America

---------------------------------------------------------

Memories of previous COLD winters around the 42 parallel.... but only going back to the winter of 2010, specifically January and February.

But first, I do have memories of previous "bastard" COLD winters. And an aside about a winter that I experienced, but do not actually have a memory of...  so, let us begin with the winter of my third year of life.  My father owned a vacation home, on the Chain of Lakes, in Lake County, Illinois. It was built with the intent of it being only a summer home.  (long ago people with enough money owned more than one home, to me today this seems unimaginable)  .... Homes such as this were not insulated, or "winterized" in any way at all.  In the fall things were turned off to prevent problems caused by freezing. For example the water was shut off and the pipes run to dry.  If they could, my parents would drive out there (about a 75 minute drive) once or twice during the winter to make sure that things were in good order.  Later they had friends who lived up there year around who would check on the house for them.  --- So, the winter of my third year my father had the lake house winter-ized.  This meant that we had to be there, because there were various workmen who needed to be let in to perform their duties in the remodel.  My parents prayed for a mild winter.  As you have guessed -it snowed and was rather cold. I HAD A BALL playing in the snow.... my parents were miserable.  And that is all I know of that story.

When I was a teenager there was a very cold winter. Dangerous wind chills more than -40F, below 0F/32C temperatures for a couple of weeks. I remember because I had a friend spend the weekend at our house. I also remember because letting our dog out I happened to look across at the neighbor's house and saw that his back door was open. I was concerned because he was old and he had a little dog.  We went over to check on Mr. Wille, but the dog would not allow us to enter the house.  My mother called Mr. Wille's daughter, and they found that he had suffered a stroke, and was not even aware that the door was open -let alone able to do anything about it.  Thankfully, Mr. Wille recovered and was able to thank us -in person, for being alert to the situation. 

I also remember, probably a couple of years later, a very cold winter week.... because I locked myself out of my car... at the Rexall Drug Store at Lee Street and Algonquin Road...  I was able to wait inside the store for my mother, who was at church to pass by, and was able to catch her -because it was so cold the car would not go fast, and the speed limit was about 25mph.... anyway I caught her attention and she pulled over and gave me her key to my car.  Problem solved.  Then my friend, Petra, and I drove out to Elgin to ski at Villa Olivia.... but it was no good, because they had to make snow for the runs, and when it is too cold the 'fake' snow just sits in clumps. It is very difficult to groom the slopes for skiing in those conditions.

On now, to 2010..... I was working for a company that performs various OSHA mandated testing procedures intended to help keep workers in industry safe. I won't give more details about that right now.... Anyway,..part of the testing takes place in a trailer -uninsulated... if it's cold outside it is a problem keeping the trailer warm.  In 2010 I worked with a lady in one of those trailers -traveling all over Iowa in January and February.  In those 50 days, between January 7 and February 26, it was NOT above 27 degrees, but for 1 day in mid-January.  WE FROZE!!! we could not get the built in heater to work properly, nor were we able to get the generator running for 46 of those days. It was miserable!! We made the best of it though,.... looking back I have to say that I believe that the 2 of us 'girls' enjoyed ourselves, in spite of the terrible cold. Blissfully, at the end of February word came that we were to be sent to Texas for March and April. We had more interesting adventures there, but that is for another blog.

On a cold winter's day in Iowa, in 2013, I came up with the idea for writing a blog called "Deep Thoughts --Thawing out the brain cells"..... I thought it was pretty clever....  *wink.

One other time, perhaps 2014 or 2015, a co-worker and I were working with a trailer, in the vicinity of Wausau, Wisconsin.... in January.  There was a cold spell, and it was about 5F for the high on a particular day.... a circuit breaker tripped during the night, leaving the trailer frozen solid... the built in heater was so cold that it was 4 hours, and our work done before it even got warm....  Using a propane space heater I was not able to raise the temperature inside the trailer above 27F.  I was ready to walk away at that point....

So, now it is January of 2018 and we have had more than 11 days of temperatures below 15F/-9C... including 2 days of below 0 (-32C) high temps.....  the first work day of 2018, January 2, when I drove to my job, at 4:45am it was -13 at the workplace parking lot.  It has been warmer in Antarctica than northern Illinois!!

It took 10 hours to get my office temperature up to 65F/18C, because it has one wall to the outdoors.
BBBRRRRRRRRRR!!!



If you live someplace that gets colder in the wintertime I apologize for whining about the cold, but gorram it! I am freezing to death! (waving at my Canadian friends)  At least I know how to dress in proper layers ...and I wear one of these:  

that's right! being warm and safe from frostbite is more important to me than what I look like.....

(If you live south of the 37th parallel don't even talk to me about cold. *wink)

red line is the 37th Parallel

..... mind you: i am no fan of hot temps either..... I prefer it to be between 45F/7C and 70F/21C.

Potpourri,... miscellaneous

Yes, I am showing off that I can spell miscellaneous,... and I did not need to google it or use spell checker....  I did, however, google "potpourri" *wink* because that I was not so sure about....  but I digress...  
This will be a mixed bag blog, short bursts on a few different thoughts, none of which would amount to what I consider a blog of proper length.  Yes, I know, some bloggers shoot for more is less, but if you know me,..... well,... I do go on. sometimes. 

Since I mentioned spelling I will start there...  My mother had a reasonable collection of books long before I was ever thought of.  What that meant was that she was going to encourage me to be a reader. There was a proper collection of children's books, and a few special books -meant for me to enjoy before anyone else. One book I remember in particular was a phonics book -all about pronunciation and parts of words --how to "sound it out".  Also, she enrolled me in a book of the month club, so that every month a book came in the mail -addressed to me! (Children love to get mail of their own, btw.) The net result of all that was that I came to love letters and words and the sound of someone reading aloud.  So, spelling is natural to me,.. it was my best subject in school -my favorite.  In the 7th grade there was a spelling bee for the entire 7th grade, I am going to guess around 300 kids.... and before me in the line were a pair of straight A students, and it was not them, but me -- who could spell "lieutenant" correctly, because I had practiced that word more than any other..... go ahead, when you meet me, and ask me to spell "lieutenant".

As a small tot I also watched game shows like Password and Concentration, which were word games. View an episode of Concentration from back in the day -click here.

______________

Tagless underwear. What a great idea! no more tags to make us scratch the back of our necks, and other places....  here is my issue: at my age I cannot remember what size.... I mean women's clothing sizes anyway! One size for "outer" clothing, and another size for underwear,... who remembers all that?  So, tagless means that they imprint the size information onto the fabric, where (wonder of wonders) it wears away in the laundry. What the heck, I need to look at the size label when I am going to buy new......  oy! (not everything is a terrific idea)

Michael Jordan ad for tagless Hanes

______________

It's the end of 2017 and it's bastard cold outside.  And it snowed,... for some reason my neighbor decided to place their recycling bin in the street rather than on the lawn.  In the snow, ...we have about 3 inches of snow on the ground because it snowed most of the day yesterday. Very early this morning the trash collectors came through, and they decided to place her trash can in the street -next to the still full recycling bin.  That's fine, except for one rather important detail... the postal carrier will now NOT be able to drive up to our mailboxes. And I would be truly shocked if that person were to come out in 3 degree weather to get her trash can and recycle bin.... because she cannot collect those 2 items when the weather is nice and there is no snow.....  
That said, I am OK with not getting any mail today....   


(below 15F/-9C for a couple of weeks already.....)

______________

I live in an association. That means that there are a few rules. It also means that I do not have to shovel snow, rake leaves, or mow the lawn.  It also means that there are always leaves and trash in the alcove where my front door is, which is very annoying. Back to those rules... which I have not thoroughly perused...  I have to wonder about things,.... like the guy catty corner across the road with the pickup truck in his driveway.... The thing about the guy's pickup truck is that it has 4 flat tires,... and it has been on that exact spot for the entire 4 years I have owned this townhome. What is up with that! I am glad that I cannot see that from inside my unit... if that was the view out of my living room window I would certainly be complaining. I do not understand what that is about, and I think that person is the definition of "white trash" for keeping that old, faded, ugly vehicle sitting there with 4 flat tires. ...there go the property values.... *wink*

______________

I have allergies. Sinus issues. Year round allergies... standard stuff mostly: grass, trees, pollen, dust, mold...  Anyway, I use nasal spray regularly, especially in the winter.  I found a great product last winter: sinus buster. It has more "natural" ingredients, and it's pretty potent stuff... anyway this winter I searched for it in stores all over the area.... I could only find (are you ready for this?) the "chili pepper" variety.  I kid you not! Chili pepper Sinus Buster nasal spray. That does not sound like a good thing, especially if you are not interested in "consuming" chili peppers.  Well, let me tell you-- Chili Pepper sinus buster works like a charm!! It definitely clears the sinuses,... it's more mild than you might imagine. Blocked sinus passages piss me off just enough that I decided to be brave and try something new. http://sinusbuster.com/ click here

did you think I was kidding?

______________

Butter in the coffee.... yes. I read about this a couple of years ago, and at the time I thought it might be interesting to try, but those people are CrAZy! 
But it's in the "keto" diet.... because you cannot have sugar or milk,.... and a week ago, for the first time, I put butter in my coffee.  I like the flavor of melted butter... and you can detect that flavor -just a little-....  it is NOT bad....  just 2 tablespoons of butter in 18 ounces of coffee.... I can get into this... for the first time in many years coffee is tasting better to me...weird, I know!

as of this posting I have cut WAY back on sugar and carbs as well.  WAY back,... my mother would be shocked. I am a little surprised at myself...

Yes, I need to lose few pounds more than I would like to admit....  Being that I am already, by necessity, gluten free,... this is a piece of high-fat butter cake *wink*.

______________

you learn something new every day -it's a fact

_______________

them's my stories and I am standing by them...................

There's a COLD Wind blowing today....

I am no scientist, or meteorologist... but I know a few things about how the weather works in northern Illinois.  I mean I have lived here my entire life, and I listen to WGN Meteorologist Tom Skilling, because he knows his stuff.  And I listened to my mother's weather lore, from her lifetime in northern Illinois.

I am writing this on January 1, 2018. The coldest day of the year *wink ..... it is -10F/-23C this fine, sunny morning.  Yes, full sunshine. No clouds. Wind chills are predicted to be, well.... 20 to 30 degrees COLDER than the temperature. 

That "sunny" morning bit, that's the bit I do not like.... let me explain....

When it is sunny in the winter time it is COLDER!  This is true in northern Illinois, and here is my, very simple, explanation:  there are no clouds to hold the warm air in.  That's it. That is the simple explanation.  So I really HATE when people whine, "but I wish the sun was out", in the dead of winter.

When we have good snow cover, and it is cloudy, it is actually WARMER! That is a fact.  Go ahead and ask Tom Skilling (check out his Facebook wall).  

Right now, today, we have had very little snowfall this winter.  There is maybe an inch and a half of snow on the ground right now. That is negligible for what I am talking about, so cloud cover would not be much help today.

The jet stream and lack of snow and lack of clouds have conspired to produce a frigid, dangerously cold beginning for 2018. 

that, in a nutshell, is it.  Oh, and please,... PLEASE do not tell me that you wish the sun was out in the dead of winter..... they call it the "dead" of winter for a reason you know.....

The weather outside is frightful!

this sums it up nicely

I am okay without sunshine for the winter months,...it's warmer, and I don't like bright light.